The Great Southern Reef (GSR) in Australia, is a series of temperate, rocky reefs and undulating kelp forests. It extends about 5,000 miles (8000 kilometers) from the New South Wales and Queensland border, around the southern coast of Australia through to Kalbarri in Western Australia.
The weedy seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus), calls the GSR home. It’s a creature from a fantasy novel, with orange and red color, and yellow and purple accents. It has kelp-like appendages and is peppered with dots and splotches unique to each one.
And earlier this year, the weedy seadragon was subject to a mass wash-up event, killing 200 on the shoreline. Citizen scientists worked alongside marine experts to solve the question of why it happened and how to stop it happening again.
They might not look like it, but weedy seadragons are fish. They’re related to seahorses and they share some common traits. They both use ...
